Price is a popular topic when talking about the Z/28. Everyone has an opinion on the price tag, and the subject's been discussed to death. (I remain firmly in the "totally worth it" camp, for the record.) What hasn't been talked much about is maintenance and upkeep, so with the car in its sixth month of our loan, let's broach the subject.
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You may expect the Z/28's maintenance costs to be uninteresting, as it is, after all, a mass-produced Chevrolet Camaro for which parts are plentiful and cheap. Alternatively, you may expect the Z/28's race car-ification to contribute significantly to the upkeep. You'd be right on both accounts. For example, an oil filter for the Z/28 cost us all of $10. The fresh oil to go with it, however, set us back $90 because its dry sump lubrication system takes 10 quarts of fully synthetic oil at $9 per bottle. All told, an oil change totaled $123.88. That's the full price, anyway, and what we paid for the second oil change. The first time around, the dealer gave us an unrequested but welcome discount on the oil.
That first service was unscheduled, but not for the reasons you might think. The owner's manual recommends changing the oil and differential fluid once the car is broken in and before taking it out for its first track session. So I called up a local dealer and told them I wanted an oil and diff fluid change on a car two months old with just 1,600 miles on it. The diff fluid change set us back $199.95, owing mostly to the labor. All told, that pre-track peace of mind cost $277.51. Not cheap, but better than tracking a car that could potentially have metal shavings from the break-in period hiding in the engine oil or diff fluid.
Around the same time as that extensive first service, we also took the Z/28 into our favorite local tire and alignment shop to have the factory recommended Track Alignment set. As it turned out, the car was delivered with the Track Alignment, but the shop noted that the owner's manual gives ranges as big as 0.5 degree plus or minus for the alignment settings, so we paid them $70 to set it to the aggressive end of the range. Unfortunately, setting the front toe requires a special tool the shop didn't have, but it was within range.
After the showdown with the Porsche 911 GT3, featuring the Z/28's uncharacteristic tail happiness, we decided to have the alignment double-checked and the optional wickerbill installed on the rear spoiler (worth 1.32 seconds per lap on Willow Springs International Raceway's Big Track"). Chevrolet, the rightful owner of the car, insisted on footing the bill for the wickerbill installation, and when we saw the $512 price tag, we didn't argue. We stuck the alignment double-check ($149.99 dealer price) on Chevy's tab, too.
As long as Chevrolet was picking up the bill anyway, I also asked the dealer to investigate a popping noise coming from the right rear passenger area every time the chassis twisted hard (typically when entering a driveway at an angle). This is apparently a known issue with the fifth-generation Camaro, as there are reports online going back to at least 2012 and Chevrolet has issued a service bulletin with a fix: hit it with a hammer. No, really. The invoice says "dimple frame/sheet metal to correct oil canning noise." In practice, it means whack the right spot under the car with a hammer and put a nice dent in it so that piece of metal will stop flexing and making the noise. Then patch any damage done to the paint. Sounds pretty shade tree, but it worked. At least they don't charge you for the service.
That takes care of service, but there's also the matter of the tires. Letting our racer Randy Pobst track the car for all it's worth chewed through the car's Pirelli PZero Trofeo Rs in short order, so when we decided to retest the car with the wickerbill, there was no choice but to order up a set of direct replacements. A complete set of Trofeo Rs shipped from our friends at Tire Rack ran $2,292, plus mounting at a local shop. After a second track test, we're already staring down another set of worn tires in need of replacing, but this time, we're considering trying another brand.
The last bit of maintenance to discuss is a recent and soon-to-be-resolved problem. The power recline mechanism in the driver's seat stopped working suddenly a few weeks ago, so while it was in for the second oil change, I has the dealer investigate. Apparently, the recline motor crapped out. Thankfully, the seat was set to a tolerable angle when it went, though slightly too reclined for my taste. A replacement part is on order and should be replaced under warranty.
More on our long-termChevrolet CamaroZ/28 here:
- Arrival
- Update 1: The Everyday Supercar
- Update 2: The Analog Supercar
- Update 4: The Things I Don't Like
- Update 5: Back in the Saddle
- Update 6: On for the Road
- Verdict
Were you one of those kids who taught themselves to identify cars at night by their headlights and taillights? I was. I was also one of those kids with a huge box of Hot Wheels and impressive collection of home-made Lego hot rods. I asked my parents for a Power Wheels Porsche 911 for Christmas for years, though the best I got was a pedal-powered tractor. I drove the wheels off it. I used to tell my friends I’d own a “slug bug” one day. When I was 15, my dad told me he would get me a car on the condition that I had to maintain it. He came back with a rough-around-the-edges 1967 Volkswagen Beetle he’d picked up for something like $600. I drove the wheels off that thing, too, even though it was only slightly faster than the tractor. When I got tired of chasing electrical gremlins (none of which were related to my bitchin’ self-installed stereo, thank you very much), I thought I’d move on to something more sensible. I bought a 1986 Pontiac Fiero GT and got my first speeding ticket in that car during the test drive. Not my first-ever ticket, mind you. That came behind the wheel of a Geo Metro hatchback I delivered pizza in during high school. I never planned to have this job. I was actually an aerospace engineering major in college, but calculus and I had a bad breakup. Considering how much better my English grades were than my calculus grades, I decided to stick to my strengths and write instead. When I made the switch, people kept asking me what I wanted to do with my life. I told them I’d like to write for a car magazine someday, not expecting it to actually happen. I figured I’d be in newspapers, maybe a magazine if I was lucky. Then this happened, which was slightly awkward because I grew up reading Car & Driver, but convenient since I don’t live in Michigan. Now I just try to make it through the day without adding any more names to the list of people who want to kill me and take my job.
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